Evaluating the efficiency of the wheat tariff regime in South Africa

A drastic change in the marketing system of wheat in South Africa has taken place over the past decade. For the first time an import tariff on wheat was implemented in the form of a variable import levy. Traditionally, countries have implemented variable import levy schemes in order to protect domestic price guarantees by means of determining a reference price, which was generally above the domestic guaranteed price, below which imports were not allowed into the country. In this paper the efficiency of the Wheat Tariff Regime in South Africa is examined, after it has been operational for the past seven years.